Scott Friesen. Logging in the Amazon


The Amazon rain forest is disappearing. Yes we do need to cut down SOME// trees to build houses and paper and such, but the trees are coming down faster then they are being replanted. The animals are losing there homes. The companies are making a fortune on selling the logs. If we keep going the Amazon will be gone.They are cutting down the trees to make farm land and to make money. It only takes a few minutes to cut down a tree. How many is that in a 12 hour swift? You can still see the Amazon from space but now you can also see were it use to be. A lot of it is illegal. They lease the land for 40 years. Before only 1 or 2 percent of the suns rays reached the forest floor, now all the rays reach the ground heating it up and evaporating it. Now the satellites can detect the thinning of trees before were we could only notice bigger damage like below. Some specis of animals only live in the Amazon rain forest and they are cutting it down. This is also
blame for global warming, and the green house gases.
amazon_deforestation.jpg
This all use to be rainforest

Some of the trees are really old.
Trees are not being planted fast enough
Year Deforestation
[sq mi] Deforestation
[sq km] Change

Deforestation Figures for Brazil


Year Deforestation
[sq mi] Deforestation
[sq km] Change
[%]
1988 8,127 21,050
1989 6,861 17,770 -16%
1990 5,301 13,730 -23%
1991 4,259 11,030 -20%
1992 5,323 13,786 25%
1993 5,751 14,896 8%
1994 5,751 14,896 0%
1995 11,220 29,059 95%
1996 7,012 18,161 -38%
1997 5,107 13,227 -27%
1998 6,712 17,383 31%
1999 6,664 17,259 -1%
2000 7,037 18,226 6%
2001 7,014 18,165 0%
2002 8,260 21,651 17%
2003 9,805 25,396 19%
2004 10,722 27,772 9%
2005 7,341 19,014 -31%
2006 5,515 14,285 -49%
2007 4,498 11,651 -18%
2008 4,984 12,911 11%
2009 2,882 7,464 -42%
2010 2,702 7,000 -6%
2011 2,408 6,238 -11%

All figures derived from official National
Institute of Space Research (INPE) data. Individual state figures.

*For the 1978-1988 period the figures represent
the average annual rates of deforestation.



Causes of deforestation in the Amazon
Cattle ranches 65-70%
Small-scale, subsistence agriculture 20-25%
Large-scale, commercial agriculture 5-10%
Logging, legal and illegal 2-3%
Fires, mining, urbanization, road construction, dams 1-2%
Selective logging and fires that burn under the forest canopy commonly result in forest degradation, not deforestation. Therefore these factor less in overall deforestation figures

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